Date:         Thu, 3 Jun 1999 09:37:19 -0400
Reply-To:     David Beierl <synergx@IBM.NET>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         David Beierl <synergx@IBM.NET>
Subject:      Bus Depot Poptop seals
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed

Just finished putting on  the poptop and luggage rack seals from Bus
Depot.  Worked great and looks dandy.  A few points:

1) The seal across the top (actually comes from West Coast Metric) does not
have tension clips.  Could be glued on but I left it as a friction fit,
seems fine.  If need be I'll glue it on later.  The other two seals have
stiff aluminum tension clips that have enough spring to be removed and
replaced without a problem.

2)  The original poptop seal is welded into a single piece and has relief
for the corners built in.  The new one -- and for a quarter the price I
don't mind a bit -- is just two lengths of uniform extrusion.  I mitered
the corners of both seals where they meet at the front corner of the
poptop, and filled in with black RTV silicone, looks almost
original.  Aviation snips for the bottom seal, razor blade for the
top.  The tubular foam inner seal is crimped by the sharp bend around the
rear "horns" of the top, but I haven't done anything with it
(yet?).  Cutting out some little triangular gores would get rid of the
excess material and make a custom fit, but it seals fine without that.  The
potential issue is that I suspect the foam will perish at the crimps b/c of
the continued stress.  But that shouldn't bother the effectiveness, more a
matter of elegance.  A few minutes with a razor blade and some weatherstrip
cement should cure my angst <g>.

3) I think I may seal shut the open ends of the tubular inner seal at the
forward corners.  I could imagine water sneaking in there and lurking.

4) I WISH I'D DONE THIS -- The forward corners of the top are relieved
slightly for about three inches along the bottom edge.  I pressed the seal
firmly up into this relief and cut the top seal to match.  However the
resulting appearance was slightly odd, so I pulled the bottom seal down to
make a uniform line.  Now of course the top seal is just a trifle too
short.  A bit of RTV filled in the gap, but I wish I had that quarter-inch
back.  Of course only I will ever know.

5) There were a couple of pounds of rubbish inside my luggage
rack.  Leaves, twigs, small acorns -- anything that could get through the
drain holes.  Didn't seem to be doing any actual harm, but what a
mess.  Also the edge of the luggage rack had chafed the paint in several
areas and started little rust spots which were hidden under the edge
seal.  Actually it's not a seal at all, just edge trim.  If God forbid it
ever *did* seal the luggage rack would fill up with water until it spilled
out the back.

6) The rack is held onto the roof brackets with lovely unobtrusive
streamlined M6 screws.  Unfortunately the screwdriver slot was low on their
list when designing these screws.  Only one of them was stuck...daddy, why
is that man standing on the front of his car and swearing?  I replaced them
with ugly nasty obvious high-drag hex-head M6 bolts with big washers.  I
*will* be able to get this sucker off when I want to.  And I'll have to
right eftsoon, to take care of that rust.

cheers
david
David Beierl - dbeierl@ibm.net